Second Chances
by Elske
Summary: It isn't easy being new to Degrassi, even when you're an adult. Okay, make that recent college grad. And -back- to Degrassi. Toby Isaacs returns as a guidance counselor and manages to leave the mark he never could as a student on the school he loves and the new students that attend it.
1. Breakfast Club

Although the new Degrassi GreenSpace garden has become the more popular hangout, it's something of a tradition for Eli and Fiona to meet in the zen garden in the mornings, for breakfast and Xanax. Fiona brings croissants, Eli brings cappuccino, and they both bring their own pills in their own pockets in their own nearly-identical pill bottles, everything alike except for their names. And usually they make their morning rendezvous uninterrupted, to talk and laugh a bit about live and consume enough caffeine to counterbalance the soporific of the anti-anxiety pills they both take.

This morning, though, Fiona is early and finds a stranger kneeling before the sign saying "JT Yorke memorial garden." She takes a step back, clears her throat, and the man in the suit turns, and blushes, and adjusts his dark-rimmed glasses.

"I'm sorry," he says, as awkwardly as he looks. "Didn't expect anyone to be here this early."

"We always have breakfast," Fiona babbles, as Eli appears with a cup of coffee in each hand.

"Who's this?" Eli asks, and the suited stranger shrugs, holds out his hand first to Eli and then to Fiona.

"Mr. Isaacs," he says by way of introduction. "I'm new, that is I'm old, that is…I'm an alum. And the new guidance counselor, specializing in conflict management, which is something that this school could use, apparently. It's all gone downhill since I graduated." He points to the memorial marker. "Did you know him?"

Fiona and Eli both shake their heads in the negative.

"He was my best friend and he died. Stabbed. My other best friend also died, shot, and the moral of this story is?" He lowers his voice dramatically. "Being friends with me is a very dangerous proposition."

Fiona laughs. "Is your first name Toby? I think my friend Holly J _liked_ you."

He snorts. "She did."

"I _liked_ her, if that's any consolation."

Toby laughs there, and it's enough to make Fiona laugh too and Eli's still holding back, like he always does with strangers. Force of habit.

"You're having a breakfast party, then?"

"Coffee, croissants, and Xanax!" Fiona says, cheerfully. "Want in?"

Toby looks at them both, then slowly – carefully – takes a pillbottle out of his inside pocket. He shakes one of the blue pills inside into the palm of his hand, replaces the bottle, then looks out at the two Degrassi Seniors. "I don't think I'm supposed to be fraternizing with the students, but screw it," he mutters, then smiles nervously. "That's one of about fifty pills I take, being bipolar has its disadvantages, but I'm meant to be a good example that we _can_ be functional. And this is something else I probably shouldn't be talking about."

"We don't mind," says Eli, with a guarded smile.

"Cheers," says Fiona, holding up her coffee-cup, and Toby gropes for his own coffee mug and they all sip at once.


	2. GBLTQQAA

It feels almost like a cliché, Toby thinks, as he walks into his closet of an office, cardboard box of possessions in hand. Like something out of a movie. Like something that would happen to someone not _him_.

Degrassi's changed so much since he was a student, but that doesn't mean he's not glad to be back. He applied for jobs at several schools, not hoping for much, but Mr Simpson called him up moments after he emailed his job application and a few interviews later, here he was. _The school is at a tipping point, Toby, they could use someone with your area of expertise_.

He reaches into the box and pulls out two framed photographs, both from his days at Degrassi. One is of him and JT. The other is of Rick Murray smiling. They're the perfect decoration for his desk, and then he stashes a handful of his favorite ink pens in one of the drawers, and then there's the red stapler his former housemate insisted he needed. And there's an almost empty box: all that's left are the fliers for the new club he's offered to sponsor, all bright rainbows and cheerfulness.

It'll be a trial by fire tomorrow, being introduced to the student body in assembly. He knows how he's going to start and how he's going to finish and he'll surprise himself with the middle of it. That's how he works best: Toby Isaacs, under adversity.

In the meantime, he supposes, he can wander around the school and put up fliers. With the retirement of the past LGBT club advisor, they'd been in limbo for a whole semester, and Toby is glad to fill that spot. If such a club as he envisions it being had existed when he was in school, how different things might have been, he thinks, as he sweeps up the fliers on one hand and exits his office, stopping for a moment to admire the shining nameplate on the door. That's you, he thinks, Toby Isaacs, guidance counselor.

There are advantages and disadvantages to being short; Toby's spent his life figuring these out. Advantage: slow dancing with a tall girl who's willing to let you rest your head on her chest. Advantage: asking a cute guy for help reaching the topmost shelves at the grocery store. Disadvantage: being in a high school setting and trying to reach the top of the bulletin boards.

"Are you new? Can we help?" a voice asks, and Toby blinks at the enthusiastic girl in shock for a moment, because it's like seeing a fifteen year old Manny Santos in the flesh. Tagging along with her: a tiny blonde, a boy in a fedora, and Toby smiles: like Manny and Emma and JT, he thinks.

"Yes, and yes, if any of you can reach the top, I don't want it to be crooked."

"Here, let me," says the Manny lookalike – she's the tallest of the bunch, thanks to four inch high heels, and she has no problem evening up the flier so Toby can staple it.

The boy gasps, picking up one of the fliers Toby abandoned on the floor. And then he squeals, and looks at Toby and says "Are. You. Serious?!" The punctuation marks are practically visable, and Toby laughs.

"Serious as…I don't know, what's a really serious thing?"

"World hunger? The holocaust?" The boy fans himself with the flier for the new GLBTQQAA club. "I've only been wanting a club like this since, forever. I mean the theatre season is only so long and those hockey goons have a club of their own all the time, and…"

Toby grins. "I like your enthusiasm, kid." He holds out his hand to the trembling Tristan. "I'm Mr Isaacs. Guidance counselor. Brand new as of, today."

"I'm Tristan. This is Tory and this is Maya, we're besties."

"I'll look forward to seeing you at Alphabet Soup Club. …get it? Because there are so many letters? We might come up with a better title. Ladies, one of those As stands for 'Ally', so it would be great to see you too. I'm looking forward to a great semester here."

As he walks away, he can hear the young students talking about him.

"Do you think he's gay?"

"He's cute, like Leonard from Big Bang theory."

"I'm more of a Sheldon," he calls over his shoulder, and he grins and maybe as an adult he'll be able to fit in here in a way he never could as a student. If he can help just one person have a better experience at Degrassi: he'll have done his duty.

[[Author's Notes:

Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites &c! I love old school DTNG, I love the new kids too and I really wanted a good excuse to bring the two together. Toby is my favorite character, and I couldn't resist bringing him back to Degrassi. This will be a multi-chaptered story and I hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it! I may deviate from canon a bit writing Toby as bisexual, but that's just something I've always done since I started writing in this fandom. ;) Reviews are loved, you tell me: whose life do you want to see Toby change for the better?]]


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